Climate change affects countries in Eastern Europe, i.e. the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe in a variety of ways. Apart from severe floods, there are records of decreasing water reserves in the southern part, and of gradual changes in biodiversity and agricultural production. In the South Caucasus area, for instance, climate change models project decline in precipitation by the end of the century, and suggest that it will continue to become drier this century.

Many Eastern European countries, especially the non-EU ones, are characterized by the fact that national climate policies on the one hand, and trans-boundary collaboration on the other are rather week, and by the fact that the engagement of the general public on matters related to climate change is still rather limited. Climate change thus poses a serious threat to the economic stability and development of many Eastern European countries, and to the sustainable development of the region.

The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better understanding of how climate change influences Eastern Europe, and for the identification of processes, methods and tools which may help the countries and the communities in the region to adapt. There is also a perceived need to showcase successful examples of how to cope with the social, economic and political problems posed by floods/droughts in the region, especially the ways of increasing the resilience of agriculture systems and of communities.

Papers submitted to the event will be peer-reviewed and the accepted ones will be published in the book “Climate Change Adaptation in Eastern Europe: Managing risks and building resilience to climate change”.
This will be a further volume of the award-winning book series “Climate Change Management” published by the Springer, which since its creation in 2008 has become the world´s leading book series on climate change management. The decision of the editors as to which papers may be selected and undergo peer review for the book is final.